First, let’s try to understand the expression “assim”, when it comes accompanied by the particle “que”, in Portuguese: assim que.

We are not talking about an informal expression so far. Assim que is a formal term that means “as soon as”. So, we often use expressions such as “assim que possível” (as soon as possible), “assim que eu vi” (as soon as I’ve seen it) and so forth.

It turns out that we, Brazilians, often use the verb “dar” (to give), in an informal way, meaning “to be able to”, “to be possible to do something”.

How’s that? For instance: não vai dar para ir te ver hoje! (I can’t see you today! It will be impossible for me meeting you today)

See? So, when I say “assim der der”, I informally mean “as soon as I can”, “as soon as possible”.

Lágrimas de crocodilo

Another informal expression we use all the time is “lágrimas de crocodilo”, which literally means “crocodile tears”. To be honest, I know the expression exists in English too, but I don’t know if people use it so often, as we do in Brazil. We use “lágrimas de crocodilo” when we want to mean that someone is crying “fake tears”. Someone is lying to you as he is crying; this is not a genuine feeling.

For instance:

Não acredite nela. Esse choro é falso: são lágrimas de crocodilo.

Don’t believe her! She is not really crying.

PT

No, I’m not speaking of the famous group of politicians we have here in Brazil. “PT” is short for the term “perda total”. If you have a car insurance company, you may know that they have their own vocabulary. PT is used when someone is involved in a serious car crash and there is no way to repair it – there’s nothing left to do with the car. So they say: o carro deu perda total, meaning you need a new vehicle or your money back.

As time passed, people start using this slang in other situations, for example: